Search results for: Darren Aronofsky

Pack Your Suitcase: Solid Return for Arteta Makes for Best Bet in Early 2011

IFC released Cold Weather in one NYC location but saw a promising $14,513 return this Super Bowl weekend. “Weather” is a pickup from last year’s SXSW Film Festival and centers around a former forensic scientist who returns home to Portland to find an ex-girlfriend missing. Writer/director Aaron Katz is no stranger to Independent filmmaking and was nominated at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards for his film “Quiet City.”

With the Oscars approaching, independent films are making aggressive pushes to capitalize on the added award buzz. Roadside Attractions released Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Biutiful in 57 theaters grossing a respectable $8,088 average. It will most likely expand the film passed the 100 theater mark this coming weekend in preparation for Javier Bardem’s Oscar nomination. “Biutiful” is Iñárritu’s first feature film directorial effort since “Babel” and is the frontrunner in the Academy’s Best Foreign Language category.

To memorialize the late Anime auteur Satoshi Kon (1963-2010), last week the Film Society of Lincoln Center put on a one-night retrospective featuring his first film, Perfect Blue (1998), and last (released) film Paprika (2006). The timing of something like this is never good per se, however, the two films exhibited on this night could not be more topical right now.

In the past few weeks, 3D releases have inundated the studio market. Disney’s Tron: Legacy took in 82% of its $43.6 million gross from 3D showings. But the recent buzz around specialty titles like “Black Swan,” and “The King’s Speech” has delivered quite a compelling argument for the viability of smaller budgets. Even studio pic “The Fighter” is relatively low-budget compared to other studio productions.